Fawcett comics survives

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In August of 1977 Stan Lee had successfully gotten the license for the Hanna-Barbera characters for Atlas comics in the pages of Hanna-Barbera superstars (featuring such characters as Scooby doo, Dynomutt, Captain Caveman, as well as the Yogi all-Stars) with the chance at making some TV shows at that time William Hanna and Joseph Barbara agreed to drop the license for Superfriends as Warner brothers Superman the movie might create a legal quagmire for them and the choice was decided to bring back the Fantastic four to TV since the 60's. Problems arise when they realize that the Human Torch would not be available as Atlas had already licensed the character to Universal studios for a possible live action TV show. The Crisis was averted when comic writer Roy Thomas was hired to adapt the source material and he acknowledged that Atlas would often use reserve members and decided that Scott Summers (Cyclops) would be the easiest replacement for Johnny Storm said choice would allow Magneto & Juggernaut to appear in episodes. and in January of 1978 Hanna-barbera's New Fantastic four premiered on NBC Saturday morning.

the main cast included

Mike Road	Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic
Ginny Tyler	Sue Storm/ Invisible girl, Jean Grey
Ted Cassidy	Ben Grimm/ Thing
Casey Kasem	Scott Summers/ Cyclops

Tim Masterson was originally cast as the voice of Cyclops however said role conflicted with working on National Lampoon's Animal House and had to be replace.
The series was going to have a second series titled Challengers of the Fantastic four but with the untimely death of Ted Cassidy and Jim Shooter (the new head of Atlas comics) canceling TV All-Stars the show was dropped.

 

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Graphic novel cover of the Defenders 1978 event storyline The Korvac Saga by Jim Shooter and George Perez

 

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Mary Marvels new look for the 70s

 

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With all the heroes in the Fawcett Universe, the Crime Crusader Squadron, The Monsters, The T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents, etc, Even something as vast of the Monster Society would be hard-pressed to gain a victory half the time. Not that they wouldn't win some battles. The MS in this case is the largest Secret Cult of Super-Villains for this universe. Unmatched by anyone. Also, since we're coming up to 1979, I'd like to make another potential suggestion for the 80s and it's another British brand team.

Well this is an appropriate time to state that thanks to Filmmation and the great purge of DC titles of 78 (most likely because Superman the movie was going over budget & WB needed to cut corners CBS creates a Filmmationverse( Earth-F) with The Freedom Force

• Ibus the invincible (in his new 70's duds)
• The Mighty Isis
• Stretchor (formally known as Super-Stretch but changed for the comics)
• Micro-Woman (Stretchor & Micro-Woman comics would be written by Arvle Jones of Black Sentinel & drawn by the artist of the recently canceled Metal men comics)
• Manta & Moray (said comic title would be a stealth continuation of the recently canceled Aquaman comic)

The new team would ofen be joined by the Space Sentinels and Hawk & Dove as well as Captain Marvel from time to time with Freedom Force being The Fawcett universe premiere superhero team after Crisis on infinite earth's)

 

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Because it's been awhile since I posted Spider-girl ITTL and well I felt that I should show all of the possible suspects behind the mask
(FYI the introduction of Spider-girl is why Web Woman has been butterflied away from Filmmation)

 

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in 1978 DC comics decided to revive the Golden age hero the Atom for the Bronze age writer Gerry Conway artist Al Mildrom whom were tasked with this project went in the completely opposite direction for Al Pratts successor rather than making him another hero based around size like Dollman the new Atom would be radioactive based inspired by Charlton comics Captain Atom and Gold Key comics Doctor Solar

The new Atom was college Student Adam Raymond & nuclear physicist Dr. Martin Stien who combines into one being with the power to alter the Atomic Structure of any object the Atoms original series was short lived as within 5 issues Atom as well as other titles became Victim of the great Comics cavalcade implosion of of 1978 though thanks to the resurgence of the Superfriends in 1979 Atom would get a second chance along with several other members of the also canceled Infinity inc becoming members of the Justice League of America

 

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In 1978 Stan Lee and Mattel had successfully negotiated with Toei studios to bring Mazingar, Raydean, & Dragun to the west repackaged as Shogun Warriors the use of Stan Lee was important to Mattels negotiations as Toei had wished to bring the Atlas superheroes to Japan and and with that a Spider-man TV series was created starting up the Super-Senti genre

 

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With issue 50 Chris Claremont having written the Sons of Tigers along with The Outsiders teamed up Powerman the Hero for Hire with Shang Chi, White Tiger and his Students. Changing the title to
Powerman and the Masters of Kung Fu

Claremont would turn the title over to Jo Duffy after seven issuses because of his work load and Jo would bring a light hearted sence of fun that was missing from the previous series

 

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In the the early 70s DC comics touted themselves as having the most titles, but with the result of over circulation, the mass blizzard of 77-78 delaying productions and Warner brothers Superman going over budget resulted in what was dubbed the Great DC implosion of 1978.
of the Implosion, 19 series were cancelled abruptly. Fourteen other titles were cancelled in 1978, for the most part "planned" cancellations announced in DC promos and in the final issues of the comics themselves. The following titles were cancelled due to the Implosion, with the following as their final issue:

• All Star Comics #74 (Sept. cover date) — issue #75 later published in Adventure Comics #461 (Jan.–Feb. 1979) and 462 (March 1979); the feature continued there until #466Army at War #1 (Nov.) — war title
• Batwoman #20 (Nov.) — merged into Detective Comics as of issue #481 (Dec. 1978–Jan. 1979)
• Battle Classics #1 (Sept.) — reprint title
• Aquaman #60(Sept.) — issue #61 later published in World's Finest Comics #260 (Dec. 1979–Jan. 1980)
• Claw the Unconquered #16(Aug.–Sept.)
• Doorway To Nightmare #5 (Sept.) — merged into The Unexpected
• Dynamic Classics #1 (Sept.) — reprint title
• Atom #5 (Oct.) — issue #6 reworked into The Flash #294–296 (February–April 1981); the story was published in the trade paperback Atom: The Nuclear Man (2011)
• House of Secrets #154 (Oct.–Nov.) — merged into The Unexpected
• Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth #59 (Sept.–Oct.) — the "OMAC" back-up stories by Jim Starlin appeared in The Warlord #37–39 (Sept.–Nov. 1980)
• Our Fighting Forces #181 (Sept.–Oct.)
• Secrets of Haunted House #14 (Oct.–Nov.) — revived a year later with issue #15 (August 1979); the title continued until issue #46 (March 1982)
• Showcase #104 (Sept.) — the Deadman story for #105 appeared in Adventure Comics #464
• Mr. Terrific # 26 (Sept)- story was adapted in Worlds Finest #261
• Star Hunters #7 (Oct.–Nov.) - a planned Adam Strange back-up story later appeared in World's Finest #262
• Infinity inc#15 (Oct.–Nov.) — #16 story reworked for All-Star Squadron #8–9 (April–May 1982)
• The Witching Hour #85 (Oct.) — merged into The Unexpected
• Freedom fighters # 30 (Nov) - brought back in 1980 under the new title Quality Control

 

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I have until 1984 before I make a decision

 

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With the success of Spider-man in Japan Toho decided to get into the new ginat mecha sentai genre themselves. Having made contact with C.C Beck about the bringing in Black Terror and Captain Future to Anime the heads of Toho lokked at other characters of the Nedor for live action finally settling on the the Fighting Yank with changing the character for a more Eastern audience.

Kazaya Aoyama from their previous series Zone Fighters would star in the lead role of of Kenuichio a young man who puts on his ancestors Samurai helmet and Magically turned into the amazing Senti Yanku to Notatakai fighting the invasion of the Xillians with his robot Sammuri Robo-1. (Which was the title in the States)

CBS was wary of finding a spot in their 1979 Saturday morning lineup in the states and would eventually leased it to Syndication in 1980 however negotiations would be in place for CBS comics to ger the license for Godzilla

The Godzilla comics would be a massive hit in the US as well as starting the Earth -J world as the Japanese versions of the Nedor comics heroes both created by Toho, (Black Terror, Captain Future, & Yanku to Notatakai) as well as new takes on Miss Mask, Libberator, and thhe Scarab to fight and sometimes ally themselves with the King of the monsters.

 

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In September of 1978 the Paramount Television service got their second major hit tv series Thanks to James L. Brooks

The series lasted from 1978 -1983 starring
Judd Hirsch-Alex Reiger
Jeff Conaway-Bobby Wheeler
Danny DeVito-Louie De Palma
Marilu Henner-Elaine O'Connor
Tony Danza-Anthony Mark "Tony" Banta
Andy Kaufman-Latka Gravas
Christopher Lloyd-Reverend Jim 'Iggy' Ignatowski
Carol Kane-Simka Gravas
Actors from from Star Trek the New Voyages would make guest appearances as passengers on the show with Various actors from Taxi would guest star on Star Trek the New Voyages during it's final two seasons

Commander Kruge (Christopher Lloyd) though appears in New Voyages a Year before becoming a main cast member in Taxi is often listed with Danny Devito, and Marilu Henner as Taxi actors who appeared on Star Trek

 

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In July of 1978 Count Vertigo appeared in the issues of Worlds Finest #231.
Though originally an adversary for Black Canary Count Vertigo would cross hairs with various heroes including Batman, Green Arrow and Mr. Terrific and even becoming a popular recurring member of the Suicide Squad in the 80s

 

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In May of 1978 Hydra agent Mystique made her first appearance in Ms America #17
Raven Darkholme created by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum is a former KGB agent experimented on to allow her to change her appearance with the side affect of making her skin blue.
Mystique wobe a frequent adversary of Various Atlas heroes joining forces with the Masters of Evil, and solo fighting the likes of Ms. America, Ironman, and Nick Fury before joining the Defenders in 1997.
(Later appearances would make her skin green as it was revealed that Skrull DNA was used to give her shape shifting powers)

 

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November of 1978 the president of CBS announced that CBS will be selling their Comics and magazine division due for financial problems.
Lou Scheimer and Steve Ditko are both interested in taking over

 

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In December of 1978 Superman the Movie premiered Produced by Alexander and Ilya Salkind and Directed by Richard Donner, the film Starred:

Charlton Heston as Jor-el	Gene Hackman as Prof. Lex Luthor
Christopher Reeve as Superman/Clark Kent	Stockard Channing as Lois Lane
Mark Mclure as Jimmy Olsen	Jackie Cooper as Perry White
Glenn Ford as Edwin Kent	Phyllis Thaxter as Sarah Kent
Peter Boyle as Otis	Valarie Perrine as Miss Tessmaccer
Terrence Stamp as Steppenwolf	Sarah Douglas as Lashra
Jack O'Harrlen as Kalibak	Jack Palance as the Voice of Darkseid (Uncredited)

The two part planned movie would connect The New Gods story by showing that Apokolips was responsible for Kryptons distruction as Kryptonian technology could be used for the Antilife equation (atomic weapons)and turned them against them

The film would end with Superman throwing Lex Luthor's Atomic bomb into space alerting the Apokolips Ambassadors to Earths location.

 

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Thanks to the contract with Warner brothers Mario Puzo got to make the Novelization of his script, thus novel negated every aspect of the Newman's contribution to the film. Sad book would give the fans of the film insight into how chaotic the production really was many negative reviews damaged Mario Puzos reputation and lost his a to write the Novelization of Superman 2

 

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In 1978 ,with the success of the Incredible Hulk NBC released made the TV Pilot for Doctor Strange.
the ambitious project started:

• Peter Horton as Dr. Stephen Strange
• Clyde Kusatsu as Wong
• Eddie Benton as Clea Stevens (first season only)
• John Millis as Nylrem the Ancient one(pilot only)​
• Jessica Walter as Morgan Lefay (recurring villain)​
• Ted Cassidy as the voice of the Evil one ( pilot only)​

Despite failing in the ratings thanks to comming out the same time as as Roots, and the passing of Ted Cassidy Universal television & NBC was able to convince the possibility of licensing the show to either ABC or PTVS for Distribution.
ABC made the best offer but to keep the production down the idea was passed around by the heads of ABC hired Night Gallery's production team of Jack Laird and William Sacheim to make it, series inspired by the stories of Thomas Carnacki ,Jack and William convinced ABC that the series could become the next supernatural Detective show where the good doctor would be a mixture of Kolchak the Night Stalker and Quincy M.E
So from 1979 -1984 Dr Strange would be drawn to cases of the Supernatural origin sometimes because of Morgan's doing.
The show would have a number of Guest stars portraying both victims of the Supernatural or villains of that episode including: John Aston, Elizabeth Montgomery, Vincent Price, Donald Pleasance, Tommy Lee Jones, Ernie Hudson, Kate Jackson, Ricardo Montebain, Jane Seymour, and Alice Cooper
Courtney Cox would be introduced in the final season as Strange's appearance Katherine (Kitty) Pryde.

 

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With CBS cancelation of their comics division and Mary Binder and C.C Beck were working hard to keep these characters in the public eye. One of their big breaks was Underroos excepting the license for The Marvel family, Spy-Smasher, Hawk & Dove, Moon girl, and the Avenger to be sold alongside The underroos of DC comics, Atlas comics and Charlton (they only paid for the licensing of Blue Beetle)
However Jack Cole discovered that over seas Fawcett UK never stopped publishing under the leadership of Mic Anglo Fawcett UK went underground producing Marvel magazine a series of indie stories most notably his Captain Marvel knockoff Mr. Marvel (who later be the Captain Marvel of Earth-U) Jack who was trying to license toys internationally met up with Mic Anglo after finding one of the Marvel magazines after a meeting with Mettoy
in Northhampton

(image of a toy of Captain Marvel driving ironically Spy-Smashers Dynamo Charger by Corgi)
With the meeting of old friends convinced Mic to help out with the Americans venture capital as he could allow using the official characters he was found of and with American backing could help him with the licensing of a certain BBC property he was trying to get.

and with that Marvel Enterprises was born

 

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Animation cel from Ruby Spears Plastic man and the Quality Control crew